It’s probably pretty safe to say that most of us participate actively on a variety of social media applications (probably more often than we should). Additionally, many of us went through high school and likely even some college – so we’ve all had to write our fair share of papers. Why is it so difficult to blog, even casually, then? I know I’m not alone on this.

Social media sharing is probably easier for most people because, for one thing, social media platforms are designed to make sharing simple. Whether that means limiting what you share to photos, restricting your character count, etc. There’s really no pressure around the content that you share on those platforms. You can post about literally anything you want – from daily complaints about XYZ to photos of every meal you’ve ever eaten since the dawn of the camera phone.

Posting on your blog/website, on the other hand, feels so much more “official”. Even if it really isn’t. It often can feel like you’re publishing a legitimate resource for all to read and scrutinize – so everything has to be perfect.

On top of that, there’s always the debilitating feeling that everything there is to say about any given topic has already been said – and at least 10x better than I can articulate it. This, of course, is a form of Imposter Syndrome and is absolutely false, in reality. The irony of that is – for me personally, at least – when I am learning something new, I actually prefer to pull information from multiple resources to get a variety of different takes on that topic. While each resource may cover a lot of the same general things, there’s always something new to take from each individual’s unique perspective.

The truth of the matter is that none of us really knows “it all” – even though it may feel that way at times. We’re all constantly learning and evolving – especially in the industry that I work in (tech). That’s what makes things so exciting! You don’t need to be an “expert” to share what you are learning – whether that be by speaking at a conference or simply posting on your own blog.

The bottom line is, no two people will experience something in quite the same way. What you learn and take away from an experience is unique only to you. So, even if something has already been written about many times over, only you can share your experience from your own, very unique, perspective.

My family and I have been making trips up to MI about twice a year to visit friends and family up there. Now that we’re living on the east coast, we’ve been driving each time.

It’s really not a bad drive at all – if we leave early enough and don’t stop too often, we can make it in around 12.5-13.5 hours. I mean, don’t get me wrong, that’s a long trip, especially with a child. But it’s scenic for at least half of the trip, through the mountains from NC through KY … then there’s Ohio, which is easily the worst and most uninteresting part of the trip, hands down.

Cities are collections of neighborhoods — and neighborhoods are powered by small business. From coffee shop owners to fitness instructors, therapists to thrift stores, it’s the people we see in the storefronts next door who build and reinforce the unique character of our cities.

At WordPress.com, we want to support local businesses as they grow their own communities (and their revenue!) on the open web. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Rebrand Cities, a project founded by Hajj Flemings to bring small businesses online, in pursuit of an audacious goal: 10,000 new websites for 10,000 small businesses and to tell their stories.

In this era of unprecedented digital surveillance and widespread political upheaval, the data stored on our cell phones, laptops, and especially our online services are a magnet for government actors seeking to track citizens, journalists, and activists.

In 2016, the United States government sent at least 49,868 requests to Facebook for user data. In the same time period, it sent 27,850 requests to Google and 9,076 to Apple.1 These companies are not alone: where users see new ways to communicate and store data, law enforcement agents see new avenues for surveillance.